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Pilot TV is officially one degree of Kevin Bacon as of this week as the City On A Hill star joins us to talk about the new season of that show which is airing now on Paramount+. Plus James, Boyd and Kay get into the viability of slow-burn shows in this era of peak TV, go round 2 over The Sandman, and catch up on the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul (no spoilers). Elsewhere, we review Sharon Horgan's new show on Apple, Bad Sisters, contemporary app-based horror series Red Rose on BBC3, and Nicola Walker and Sean Bean's incredibly affecting Marriage on BBC1. And there's still time to book tickets to our live 200th show on the 21st: https://bit.ly/3plL4hW

** BOOK TICKETS FOR OUR LIVE 200th EPISODE ON 21 AUGUST HERE: https://bit.ly/3A4lXWY** The Sandman stars Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong join us on the show this week to dream a little dream of Netflix's Neil Gaiman adaptation with Helen O'Hara. Plus we take a look at Apple's hurricane Katrina thriller, Five Days At Memorial, and nineties movie spin-off A League Of Their Own on Prime Video. Elsewhere, there's a quick, spoiler-free confab about the state of Better Call Saul and Boyd and James square off for Breedersgate part 2, only this time it's all about the Lord of Dreams.

On this week’s show we weigh in on Prime Video’s eighties teen time travel drama Paper Girls, watch Neil Patrick Harris enjoy no sex in his city as the star of Netflix’s Uncoupled, and join Alicia Vikanda in HBO’s meta-Hollywood satire Irma Vep. Plus James, who definitely hasn’t been on holiday this week, reveals his true identity as a West Country millennial with a love of workplace comedies.

This week's show sees us solving a double murder alongside Andrew Garfield in Under The Banner Of Heaven on Disney+, searching for answers with an amnesiac Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Surface on Apple TV+, and finally getting to find out what's going down in From, the creepy supernatural horror that kicks off the launch of Sky Sci-Fi, formerly Syfy, formerly The Sci-Fi channel. Confused? So are we. Plus we examine the films that really should have been able to luxuriate over a television runtime.

This week we not only dissect the nominations for this year's EMMYs, but James reveals the extent to which Covid (which, in the mother of all ironies, laid him out immediately after recording last week's show) has allowed him to put a dent in his mammoth watch-list, specifically around a certain Breaking Bad prequel. And speaking of which, in a cryptic review that plays out almost entirely in code, Beth and Boyd review Better Call Saul's home stretch while protecting James' delicate ears from any hint of spoilers. And we watch Witness No. 3 on Ch5 and cry (and laugh, but mainly cry) our way through season 3 of Trying on Apple TV+.

Michelle de Swarte is our guest on this week's show, chatting demonic offspring with Beth in honour of Sky comedy The Baby. Elsewhere, prompted by a recent episode of The Boys, the team discuss the most shocking scenes in all of tellydom, plus we announce our LIVE 200th episode (keep Sunday 21 August free!). Review-wise, we wade into The Control Room on BBC1, comedy Sneakerhead on Dave, and James and Boyd try (and fail) not to get into (another) fight about Breeders.

As promised a couple of weeks back, we welcome The Man Who Fell To Earth stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Bill Nighy to the show this week, where they were warmly greeted by Pilot TV superfan Chris Hewitt. Plus we run through our pick of the 20 best TV shows of the year so far, and even find time to do a quick rundown of the Stranger Things finale (at the very end if you want to avoid spoilers). We also look at Apple's Taron Egerton prison thriller Black Bird; Sky's parenting black comedy The Baby; Starzplay's true crime drama The Girl From Plainville, with Elle Fanning; and Prime Video's The Terminal List, which sees Chris Pratt kill everyone in sight as a vengeful Navy SEAL.

Simon Pegg joins us on the show this week, to talk about his new Channel 4 cyber security drama, The Undeclared War. Plus we head back to the future for the fourth season of Westworld on Sky, Atlantic, off to New Orleans for the US reimagining of Queer As Folk on Starzplay, and back to Atlanta for Season 3 of that show, which returns to Disney+. Plus Boyd catches up with the second season of Only Murders In The Building. All that and some Kate Bush love and musings on the pros (and cons) of book to TV adaptations.

Want to hear from The Master Chief himself? Of course you do, which is why Pablo Schreiber joins us on this week's show to talk all things Halo. Plus the team take sides on whether they're #TeamMaggie or #TeamBirdy in Everything I Know About Love, Beth and Boyd go into raptures about the Barry finale and we review ALL the shows. Why? Because Paramount+ launched this week, and with it everything from The Man Who Fell To Earth and The First Lady to The Offer, Halo and the new Star Trek show. There is a LOT going on and we do our level best to cover off the whole lot.

Paapa Essiedu and Anjli Mohindra join us on the show this week to talk all things time travel for Joe Barton's new series, The Lazarus Project on Sky. Plus Anson Mount — Christopher Pike himself — is also with us, sliding back into the captain's chair for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+. Not only that, but we investigate a murder among the miners with David Morrissey in Sherwood on BBC1, and finally get to talk about the latest addition to the MCU, Ms Marvel on Disney+.

The legend that is Murray Bartlett is our guest on this week's show, chatting all things Physical Season 2, as well as The Last Of Us and (most importantly) Farscape. Plus we finally get David Simon's Baltimore-set follow-up to The Wire, We Own This City, into our eyes; go out on the lash with Dolly Alderton in Everything I Know About Love; and catch up with Homelander, Starlight and the inimitable Billy Butcher in season 3 of The Boys. All that and James, Beth and Boyd still find time to talk about great musical moments in television and re-litigate Stranger Things.

Only a group as seismic as The Sex Pistols could bring the Empire Podcast and the Pilot TV Podcast together once again. Yes, to mark the launch of Danny Boyle's brand-new six-part series, Pistol, on Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb put their collective noggins together and discuss the show, which debuts on Disney+ on May 31, and which charts the rapid rise and fall of the British punk band towards the tail end of the 1970s. In a fun episode, Chris, James and Beth talk about the cultural impact of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Sid Vicious and the boys; their legacy; their weird link to the Spice Girls, and much, much more. Plus, Chris sits down with two of the stars of the show, Maisie Williams and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and asks one of them about nicking Andy Serkis' arancini at the Empire Awards. It doesn't get much more punk than that. Never mind the you-know-what, here's [Empire and Pilot talking about] the Sex Pistols.

Not only do we have both Karl Urban and Jensen Ackles on this week’s show to talk about the new season of The Boys, but Empire’s Helen O’Hara makes her Pilot TV debut, finally getting the chance to lay her hands on one of the stars of Supernatural (figuratively speaking). Then, we nearly fail to get Obi-Wan Kenobi on the show but, thanks to some post-production tomfoolery, we were able to do a last minute drop-in to cover off all things Star Wars, and that was in addition to Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols biopic, Pistol and sci-fi adaptation The Midwich Cuckoos on Sky. All that and Beth (for she has returned) Boyd and James mull over some of the best shows that have filmed in their respective home towns.

We may not have been able to see Obi-Wan Kenobi this week but that didn't stop us inviting Indira Varma onto the show to talk all about the latest addition to the Star Wars canon. Plus we return to Hawkins for Stranger Things' fourth season on Netflix, see Kaley Cuoco return in season 2 of The Flight Attendant and head off to university with that wee English fella in Big Boys on Channel 4. Beth is in Cannes this week so we're instead joined instead by none other than Boyd's Heat magazine desk-mate Kay Ribeiro.

Heartstopper star Joe Locke joins us on the show this week to talk about that show's huge impact since its release. Plus the team not only get deep into the weeds on who'd make the best companion to Ncuti Gatwa's doctor but end up going off on an extended tangent about the worth of American remakes off the back of US Ghosts. Plus we review the latest adaptation of hit novel The Time Traveler's Wife on Sky, catch up with Claire Danes and Tome Hiddleston in The Essex Serpent on Apple and join JK Simmons and Sissy Spacek for a look at Prime Video's Night Sky.

The legendary Glenn Close joins us this week along with her Tehran co-star Niv Sultan to discuss the Apple show's second season, plus Bosch himself, Mr Titus Welliver, stops by to chat Bosch: Legacy, Star Wars and assorted geekery. Plus we get into this week's TV BAFTAs, the exciting new Doctor Who casting, and which shows from this year we think will stand the test of time. All that and we review Tokyo Vice on Starzplay, Conversations With Friends on BBC3, and The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix.

James gets to indulge his geek tendencies this week when Ella Purnell and Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway herself!) join the show to talk Star Trek Prodigy, and Boyd sits down with Jack Davenport and John Morton to discuss Netflix's Ten Percent. Plus the team talk immersive TV experiences and get properly stuck into Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Freevee, The Staircase on Sky, and DI Ray on ITV.

Elisabeth Moss joins us on the show this week to discuss Apple's brilliant, reality-bending serial killer thriller, Shining Girls. Plus Bill Hader drops by to talk bringing Barry back to our screens, taking the opportunity to also unleash his Matt Berry impression upon Beth. Elsewhere on the show, we take a deep dive into the current state of the streaming wars and take a peek at Prime Video's Call My Agent adaptation, Ten Percent.

We're awash with both guests and shows this week, with Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend joining us to talk all things Anatomy Of A Scandal, and Sarah Solemani sitting down for a very frank and interesting conversation about #MeToo, that Oscars slap, and her new Channel 4 Show Chivalry (all from the comfort of her 'fascist shed'). Meanwhile, we line-up a veritable marathon of new shows for review, including the aforementioned Chivalry, timeloop BBC2 drama Life After Life, the second season of Netflix's Russian doll, Starzplay's Watergate drama Gaslit (with Julia Roberts), and teen romance Heartstopper on Netflix. Better than a chocolate egg, we thing you'll agree.

Not only do we have Will Poulter on this weeks show, talking Agatha Christie and Arsenal with Boyd, but Derry Girl Saoirse-Monica Jackson drops by as well to discuss that show's final season. As well as Channel 4's Derry Girls and Britbox mystery, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, we also take a look at Catherine Tate's Hard Cell on Netflix and Apple's feminist anthology, Roar. Plus James is forced to watch Newark, Newark and the team celebrate the rather excellent casting of Terri's memoir adaptation.